Metric hits big time

Metric brings Synthetica sound to Edmonton's Rexall Place

Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Vocalist Emily Haines of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGENCY

Vocalist Emily Haines of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGENCY

Guitarist James Shaw of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Guitarist James Shaw of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Vocalist Emily Haines and guitarist James Shaw of Metric play Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Vocalist Emily Haines and guitarist James Shaw of Metric play Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Vocalist Emily Haines of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGENCY

Vocalist Emily Haines of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGENCY

Vocalist Emily Haines of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGENCY

Vocalist Emily Haines of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGENCY

Vocalist Emily Haines of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGENCY

Vocalist Emily Haines, drummer Joules Scott-Key, guitarist James Shaw and bassist Joshua Winstead of Metric play Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Vocalist Emily Haines (centre), drummer Joules Scott-Key, guitarist James Shaw (left) and bassist Joshua Winstead (right) of Metric play Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Vocalist Emily Haines (centre), drummer Joules Scott-Key, guitarist James Shaw (left) and bassist Joshua Winstead (right) of Metric play Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGENCY

Fans dance while Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Vocalist Emily Haines and guitarist James Shaw of Metric play Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Vocalist Emily Haines of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN QMI AGE

Vocalist Emily Haines of Metric plays Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 15, 2012. The band is touring Canada supporting its most recent album Synthetica. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

Related Stories

Neither do we. It’s like this band was born to play the hockey arenas. After a long road up the ranks, its first appearance at Rexall Place on Thursday night was a commanding performance that hit all the right notes, so to speak, to make for one Big Rock Show. It wasn’t a full house, but this is modern rock, not mainstream rock.

Big difference (at least until the former eventually becomes the latter). Besides, this young crowd, maybe 7,000, with hundreds crushed to the front of the stage in the general admission floor area, made up for it with sheer enthusiasm.

Metric fans have been waiting to see this unusual Canadian new wave band hit the big time for quite some time, and there was much rejoicing.

Singer Emily Haines was the centre of attention, naturally, looking quite fetching in black hot pants as she hopped around the stage and behind her rack of synthesizers while singing stark yet powerful songs of discontent and alienation. There are clearly some issues here.

The first words out of her mouth were “I’m just as f---ed up as they say,” from the opening tune, a new one called Artificial Nocturne, whatever that’s supposed to mean. And were people actually saying that?

Hard to know.

This is a mysterious band. Heavy on bottom end, driving grooves, tons of electronic junk on the vocals and great, fat blats of synth, the sound of the band was rather distant at times, despite its power, but the sweet vocals saved it from being completely cold. The show also included such songs as Speed the Collapse, Empty, Help I’m Alive, each expressing a gleefully grim worldview. Definitely a theme here.

“I’m the blade, you’re a knife, I’m the weight, you’re the kite,” Haines sang in Breathing Underwater, a song that seems to be about an uneven relationship. Songs like Dead Disco take on pop culture in general: “Dead disco, dead funk, dead rock ‘n’ roll … everything has been done.”

Metric’s biggest hits are more telling. Monster Hospital, coming near the end of an almost two-hour show, is a party song without a light at the end of the tunnel, the entire arena singing its tagline, “I fought the war, but the war won.” Along the same lines was Gold Guns Girls — even faster and more intense — asking repeatedly if the title of the song is “ever going to be enough?”

Short answer: No.

There was hardly a lull in a hard-driving, high-energy, high-tempo show, though towards the end there was a merciful moment of tenderness in the encore song, acoustic guitar and vocals only for Gimme Sympathy.

Haines didn’t say much at all until she introduced the song, explaining, “I always feel like there’s too much to say, so I hope the songs speak for themselves … I wish I had some answers for you. Got lots of questions, though. If you need any questions, come to me.”

Fans who came early were treated to the seriously hipster vibes of the Toronto electro-rock band that calls itself Stars.

Well, it could happen. Wearing too many pretentious hats for its own good – a telling sign, make no mistake - the band at its weakest sounds like an evil fusion of the Tragically Hip and the Arcade Fire, though it could be a lot worse. At best, it’s pure magic — driving grooves, thick synth-laden washes and soaring vocals to create an entirely original sound that can only be described as “new wave soul.” We Don’t Want Your Body had especially funky flavour. Great song.

Bonus points for dedicating a song to Wayne Gretzky. You can’t go wrong with that when you play Edmonton’s hockey arena.